5 Cool Projects From West Point's Soldier Design Competition

Young engineers at the hallowed military academy take a crack at modern battlefield problems.

Young engineers at the hallowed military academy take a crack at modern battlefield problems.

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5 Cool Projects From West Point's Soldier Design Competition

The Soldier Design Competition, an annual event sponsored by MIT and the United States Military Academy at West Point, draws some the most innovative ideas from the military's young minds. PopMech was lucky enough to visit West Point during the cadets' presentations this year, where teams pitched more than a dozen projects to a panel of three judges. This is more than a science fair: For the past several years, Soldier Design Competition contestants have generated two or three patents per year. This is the first step of a two-part contest—the first step is here at the academy, while the finals will be held in MIT, against students, in May.

Here, in no particular order, are five ideas that show the scope of the West Point projects that made it to the finals. It's not necessary to believe these projects will be developed to appreciate them. It may be enough to know that the next generation of military minds has a grasp on the innovative, and the achievable.

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The PowerPatch

Team: Samuel Lowell, Andrew Pribble, Katherine Gross, Alex Parra

Batteries are the blessing and the bane of the modern military—technological superiority is limited by the demand for portable power. The dream solution is a battery that is thin and flexible enough to integrate into existing material, whether an airplane wing or a soldier's uniform. The team behind Power Patch (version 2) is embedding layers of metal nanotubes from cathode to anode, with a solid polymer electrolyte sandwiched between, to create 3.5-mm-thin batteries. Their demonstrator is an American flag patch that can light an LED.

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Counter-UAV Artillery Net

Team: Zeric Butters, Roger Diaz, H. Schlotterbeck, C. Whitaker

It doesn't take much effort to repurpose a radio-controlled hobby airplane as a recon drone. Just add a camera and the toy becomes a surveillance asset for warlord militias, low-rent militaries, and insurgent groups. These cheap devices are hard to shoot down, and using missiles against them is not exactly cost-effective. The West Point cadets on Team DIVE (Deterring Intelligence Vehicles with Energetics, if you must know) propose using a 40-mm artillery sabot right out of Wile E. Coyote's arsenal—it opens into a 2 x 3-foot polypropylene net. "This brings counter-UAV capability to small unit formations," Cadet Roger Diaz says.

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Radioisotope Pyroelectric Generator

Team: Richard Calvin, Eric Nelson

Another bad thing about batteries: Because they die, troops must carry spares. So, Cadets Eric Nelson and Richard Alvin wanted to make a high-endurance battery, and because radioactive materials make the longest-lasting power sources, so why not look there?

Their system relies on the isotope Americium-241, with a half-life of 432 years. "It's used in most smoke detectors," says Nelson. The next step involves groovy materials called pyroelectric crystals, which generate electricity when heated: The temperature change forces positive and negative charges to either end of the crystal, polarizing it. Lower the temperature and the charges flow again, providing another opportunity to harness the current. "Radioactivity has never [before] been used to heat these crystals," Cadet Calvin tells the judges.

To make a generator that harnesses this flow, the team created a six-chambered holder. It's sort of like a revolver, but instead of bullets, it contains lithium tantalite crystals. The chamber rotates, exposing one shard at time to a bit of Am-241.The early experiments have a half-volt current, just enough to light an LED. But the project suggests that drawing power from the crystal's heating and cooling cycle someday could allow for a battery-size generator with an absurdly long shelf life.

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ExoBoot

Team: Ryan Polston, Meagan Latimer, Zachary Reichert

This idea is cleverly realistic: Instead of carrying some of the weight for a soldier, as many prototype military exoskeletons do, the ExoBoot reinforces the calf muscles, which do most of the work while walking. A lattice made of microns-thin layers of a shape-memory alloy called Flexinol constitute the system. Running electricity through the material makes it contract by about 10 percent. "If we time it just right during a walking gait, it will apply that force to the bottom of the foot," Polston explained to the judges. The team has successfully tested a crude version on a treadmill, the cadet added. "The test subject happened to be me."

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Ammo Resupply Artillery

Team: Maxwell Bauer, Kevin Updike, and Brian Zordell

Need ammo? Why not have some friendly forces shoot it at you? The cadets who made the Ammunition Resupply Projectile feel that this really could be the way to bring rounds to soldiers in need. The team created a package for the bullets, drilling holes with a custom-made bit to match the profile of the round, securing them in gelatinous material. "The bullets will be backward," Cadet Maxwell Bauer said. "That's the best way for rounds to not deform during the high g's during launch." The ammo would drop in on a guided parachute.

One potential design complication: Soldiers who need ammo that fast won't want to open shells and have ammunition spill everywhere. Also, the goo must not cling to the ammunition surface, or it will jam weapons.

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